On the upswing

At last, the first day of winter arrives…. Merry Solstice, everyone!

Why am I so happy? I’m not a an ardent fan of winter, but as of today, the days grow longer and in just 45 ish days, around about February 4, the sun will shine upon my garden for 10 hours a day. I love that day. Groundhog Day, my birthday, and the magic day, all in a row, 2,3,4. February is a good month!

In the meantime, I am making do with Christmas tree lights and candles in the windows of Henbogle house, making holiday cookies, wrapping gifts and planning parties. We still have some greens alive in the hoophouse, I hope we will be eating a few of them at one of our upcoming dinners. Otherwise, I just want them to live through the winter for early spring salads.

Although I am busy with holiday preparations, I am thinking a lot about my garden, and I hope write a summary of the year over the holiday vacation. In addition to a garden summary, I am also planning with some other Master Gardeners a seed swap for early February. More on that soon, but if you have ever participated in a seed swap and would be willing to share some advice, let me know.

Happy Holidays!!

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This entry was posted on December 21, 2010 at 10:39 pm and is filed under gardening, life, Master Gardener. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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6 Responses to “On the upswing”

I mark the solstice and Imbolc (ground hogs day) just as you do because I am not a dark days of winter kind of person. I breathe through it and stay focused on the upswing that inevitably does occur in the day length and sun strength.

Happy holidays to you and here’s looking forward to the arrival of Imbolc.

Interesting. Our date for the return of ten hours of daylight is Feb. 1, only three days earlier than yours. Of course I suppose that means we lose it 3 days later than you in the fall. Still, all the miles between PA and Maine, and it only makes our growing season 6 days longer than yours for the entire year.

For seed swapping, I can recommend a big table that everyone can sit around and pass seed packets back and forth across. Urge people to return the packets back to whatever container originally held them so that people can go home with whatever they brought that wasn’t given away. Strictly equitable trades don’t seem to happen much, but in my experience, gardeners don’t really care. I also recommend you familiarize yourself with El’s seed envelopes if you don’t already know them. It’s a useful packaging technique to share. Finally, a seed swap is also a good time to arrange group orders for seeds/rootstock if others are interested.

I didn’t have my Solstice bonfire/party this year. The neighbors couldn’t fit it in. My Christmas tree is beautiful and will get me through the next couple of weeks. Soon, early Feb, we’ll really notice a change. I traveled to Ulster County NY on Dec 4. The difference in the height of the sun was unbelievable. In Maine, we really are on the dark side of winter.